Eco Mural 8: Chesapeake’s Bounty
Location: The Mainstay, 5753 North Main Street, Rock Hall, MD | Date: 2019
Artists: Designed, illustrated, and painted by Katie Lillard and the 2019 Public Art Class of Wye River Upper School in partnership with Hagopian Arts
America's First Settlement & A Historical Environment
Hagopian Arts presents its eighth installment in the Eco Mural Project, Chesapeake’s Bounty. This piece was our first collaboration with an outside arts program, and designed and painted by Katie Lillard and the 2019 Public Art Class at Wye River Upper School with Hagopian Arts’ guidance. Through a grant from Kent County Arts Council, this public art piece was installed at the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland, in the spring of 2019.
This mural beautifully expresses the biodiversity found in one of America’s most significant historical environments. The Chesapeake was the site of the first American settlement at Jamestown in 1607, and supported the growth of colonists during their secession from the British in the next century. The bay is also a precious biosphere that is currently suffering from the effects of environmental degradation, climate change, and pollution.
Saltwater and Freshwater
The Chesapeake owes its biodiversity to its position as an intermediary ecosystem between the mighty Atlantic Ocean and the shores of North America’s East Coast. The bay is a mix of saltwater and freshwater, supporting over 3,600 species of plant and animal life. Over 40 rivers link to the Chesapeake, making it an invaluable resource not only to the species who call it home but to the millions of people who live in and around its shores. “Chesapeake’s Bounty” offers a small peek into the area’s biodiversity: this includes a blue heron, rockfish, a blue claw crab, oysters, an osprey carrying a menhaden, black-eyed Susans, and a Maryland checkerspot butterfly. These species reflect the wide range of wildlife that call the Chesapeake their home, existing in a careful symbiotic balance that is easily tipped.
Overfishing and Degradation
The Chesapeake is currently at risk due to several factors. The delicate balance between freshwater and saltwater is easily disturbed by runoff pollution caused by the 18 million residents of the Chesapeake watershed. Overfishing, shoreline and marshland degradation, industrial pollution, and development along the estuary have caused significant damage to the bay, causing notable declines in its species and water quality. As it stands, only 22% of the bay is protected by the government for conservation. It’s important that we raise this number, and support environmental organizations that have made it their mission to ensure the bay is preserved for future generations and the health of the East Coast.
About the Eco Mural and Wild Medicine Projects
The Eco Mural Project by Hagopian Arts is an ongoing series of public art installations designed to educate and inspire action on ecological and cultural issues. Each mural is a meticulously detailed, one-of-a-kind piece, blending vibrant artistry with rigorous research. These murals transport viewers into immersive natural environments, revitalizing urban spaces while addressing pressing concerns about environmental degradation.
Within this initiative, the Wild Medicine Eco Mural Project focuses specifically on the cultural heritage of medicinal plants. Through detailed depictions and thoughtful programming, the series highlights the historical, cultural, and healing significance of plants, fostering a deeper connection between individuals and the natural world.
The Eco Mural Project is rooted in the belief that reconnecting communities with nature can profoundly impact mental and physical health. These murals showcase the beauty of local flora and fauna, enlivening public spaces and encouraging residents to see their environment in a new light. This engagement inspires a sense of pride, belonging, and collective responsibility for the natural world. To enhance accessibility, each mural includes a scannable QR code linking viewers to a webpage that provides detailed information about the artwork, the plants featured, and their historical and cultural significance. These pages also honor Indigenous histories by sharing the uses, markers, and cultural associations of the depicted flora and fauna.
Community-Driven Programming and Collaborations
Hagopian Arts amplifies the impact of its murals through live events, educational initiatives, and community partnerships that engage people across generations and cultures.
Hagopian Arts transforms urban landscapes through art that bridges the worlds of ecology, education, and cultural heritage. Each mural is a portal into the hidden wonders of the natural world. By blending intricate artistry with educational outreach, Hagopian Arts inspires communities to rediscover the beauty and importance of the environment they call home.
Honoring Indigenous Histories and Local Ecosystems
A standout project in the Wild Medicine Series is Eco Mural 21 at Bartram’s Garden, a series of freestanding mini murals showcasing medicinal plants historically used by the Lenni Lenape people. Designed with community input, the murals feature local flora, Lenape beadwork patterns, and depictions of children on the riverbank where passionflowers grow.
Hagopian Arts conducted extensive research into Bartram’s Garden’s historical catalog to honor the Lenape people’s contributions and highlight the cultural significance of the plants. At the unveiling event on September 15th, Melaney Gilchrist, a West Philadelphia herbalist, and mindfulness yoga practitioner Nakesha Moore of Breathe Moore led workshops for community families. These sessions explored the medicinal properties of the plants while fostering connections between art, history, and wellness practices.
Through its murals and programming, Hagopian Arts creates vibrant spaces for education, inspiration, and dialogue. The Eco Mural Project bridges art and environmental advocacy, encouraging communities to cherish their local ecosystems and honor the cultural and historical ties that bind them to the natural world.
Wild Medicine: A Multidimensional Creative Experience
This live event combined public art, botanical installations, body-painted models, and performance art to merge the worlds of creativity and herbal wisdom. Hosted in collaboration with women artists, herbalists, and grassroots organizers, the event invited participants to explore the healing connections between art and nature.
Ancient Ancestral Connections
Eco Mural 18: Women’s Wild Medicine celebrates the ancestral bond between women and medicinal plants, featuring women from diverse cultural backgrounds alongside flora from their heritage. Installed at Penn OB/GYN, the mural also serves as a pilot for the Women’s Wild Medicine Initiative, a community-driven effort that highlights the healing power of native plants and their historical ties to women.
Wild Medicine Coloring Journal and Foraging Guide
In collaboration with educator and illustrator Katie Lillard, Hagopian Arts produced the Wild Medicine Journal and Coloring Illustration Booklet, inspired by the two murals created for Wild Medicine Eco Mural 15: Mugwort, Mullein, and Mallow. The booklet features twenty medicinal plants rendered in Hagopian Arts’ signature style, blending pattern, naturalism, and realism.
Hagopian Arts distributed the journal and accompanying foraging guides to schools and community organizations to introduce youth aged 3-18 to ecological awareness in both traditional and nontraditional learning settings. These resources were also shared during a mural unveiling, empowering community members to safely connect with wild plants and explore their uses in daily life.
Highlighting Interconnectivity: Eco Mural 20
As part of the Wild Medicine Eco Mural Project, Hagopian Arts created Eco Mural 20: Artelo to celebrate the interdependent relationships between plants, pollinators, and human communities. This mural was a collaborative effort with Square Roots Collective and 14 other public artists contributing uniquely to the Artelo hotel project. While each artist brought a distinct vision to the hotel’s art-filled rooms, Hagopian Arts focused on the ecological and cultural themes central to the Wild Medicine Eco Mural Project.
To expand its reach, Hagopian Arts hosted interactive workshops that engaged community members in the creative process: At Hyacinth Montessori School in West Philadelphia, children aged 6–12 participated in a painting workshop, learning about local flora and pollinators while contributing sections to the mural. This activity incorporated yoga and mindfulness practices led by Breathe Moore, blending creativity and well-being.
At John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, community members painted portions of the mural while learning about the featured species and their roles in local ecosystems.
In September 2024, Hagopian Arts partnered with the Kennett Trails Alliance and Artelo for a public mural painting event during the Hispanic Heritage Festival in Kennett Square. Using a paint-by-number system and hand-mixed colors, participants painted sections inspired by the flora, fauna, and geometric patterns of Eco Mural 20. The mural, once finalized by Hagopian Arts, will be installed in Kennett Square in 2025, further expanding its impact and reach.
Related Projects
Eco Mural 14: Barn Swallows
These beautiful birds have been friends of people in America for centuries, and signal the coming of spring as they make their annual migration back from South America. Swallows are incredible long-distance migrants, flying up to two hundred miles per day in order to reach appropriate temperatures throughout the year. A common Indigenous American folklore tells of a daring swallow who stole fire from the gods in order to give it to humans. In retaliation, an angry deity threw a firebrand at the bird, singeing off the center of his tail, resulting in the unique fork. Science has taught us that Barn Swallows actually use their tails to chase down insects and perform impressive aerial stunts.
Eco Mural 13: Luna Moth
Few moths are as beautiful or as striking as the Luna Moth. Its vibrant green wings, magenta markings, and graceful elongated hindwing tails make them the subject of much admiration amongst entomologists and nature-lovers alike.
The Luna Moth is the largest moth in North America, averaging a wingspan of about 3-4 inches. Luna Moths prefer to live in deciduous forests and have an expansive range that covers the eastern half of North America.
Eco Mural 11: John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum
Located in West Philadelphia, John Heinz serves both as a state funded zone of protection for some of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable wildlife, and as an educational hub for students and residents across Philadelphia County. John Heinz Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum was founded in 1972 after lobbying by concerned citizens as the last local marsh was threatened by industrial expansion. When settlers arrived in Pennsylvania in the 1600s, a process of draining and filling the marshland to create grazing land for livestock reduced the size of marsh from approximately 5200 acres to just under 350 by the 20th century.
Eco Mural 7: Nautili
Few creatures have captured the imagination of artists, writers, scientists, mathematicians, and paleontologists as much as the chambered nautilus. Nautili are classified as within Cephalopoda, the same family as octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish. Unlike their soft-bodied cousins, nautili are the only cephalopods that protect themselves with a chambered shell. This shell has two major features that have fascinated humans since the Nautilus’ discovery. These are the pearly, luminescent nacre that lines the inside of the shell, and the iconic compartments spiraling outwards in near-perfect symmetry. As early as the Renaissance, its shell can be found in jewelry, furniture, art, and decoration.
Eco Mural 6: Honeybee
It’s hard to put into perspective just how important bees are to the environment at large. They are a keystone species in the wild, pollinating the vast majority of all fruits, nuts, and vegetables on Earth. Bees are responsible for the reproduction of nearly one-third of all the food that humans consume, making them our greatest agricultural partner. Unfortunately, climate change has begun to take its toll on our pollinators. Hagopian Art’s mural Symbiosis at Emlen Elementary celebrates the bee and hopes to bring awareness to their steep decline as a result of human environmental interference.
.jpg)
Eco Mural 3: Arowana
Asian Arowanas are freshwater bony fish that are native to the lakes, slow-moving rivers, forested wetlands and swamps of Southeast Asia. Since the 1970s, Asian Arowanas have caught the attention of aquarists internationally for their captivating scales and brilliant colors. Arowanas have become infamous for being the most expensive fish in the world; however, the economy surrounding their breeding and purchase has failed to benefit their native habitat.
Arowanas are coveted for their brilliant armored scales, which come in a variety of naturally-occurring colors.
Learn More and Get Involved: